MSS: Keenan Lineback

Keenan Lineback is not only a good swimmer, but an accomplished surfer, and she talks about how the two disciplines complement each other. She also talks about swimming at the La Jolla Roughwater competition.

Show Transcript: (Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: Welcome to The Morning Swim Show for Monday, September 19th 2011. I'm your host Peter Busch. In the FINIS monitor today we'll talk to Keenan Lineback. She's a freshman at the University of San Diego, a world class surfer, and a pretty darn good open water swimmer too. She just got second in the one mile La Jolla Rough Water Swim. Keenan joins us right now in the FINIS monitor from Sand Diego. Hey Keenan, welcome to The Morning Swim Show. How are you?

Keenan Lineback: Very good, thanks for having me.

Peter Busch: Competitive surfer huh?

Keenan Lineback: Yes sir. I've been surfing since I was nine years old.

Peter Busch: But you grew up in South Carolina, right?

Keenan Lineback: Yes sir.

Peter Busch: Not too many great waves out there.

Keenan Lineback: No, only hurricane swells I guess and that's about it.

Peter Busch: So you're the one we see on the news riding the hurricane waves while everybody else has made their way inland.

Keenan Lineback: We just stay and that's when I go in.

Peter Busch: That's your favorite day of the year, huh?

Keenan Lineback: Yes sir.

Peter Busch: So you've been on the USA Surfing team, is that right?

Keenan Lineback: Yes sir, I was on it for two years.

Peter Busch: I've got to say I didn't even know it existed. Now where is that based out of and what do you guys do?

Keenan Lineback: It was based on a contest, how you do in a contest called the US Surfing Championships. When I was on the team the contest was in Huntington Beach, California and they just picked if you got first or second in your division you automatically made it and what it consisted of was they picked from that team, they chose the world team, and we just do like team training camps that are like a week long and there was about four a year.

Peter Busch: Best spot you've ever surfed in.

Keenan Lineback: That's really hard - probably Australia.

Peter Busch: What beach specifically or what area?

Keenan Lineback: Snapper Rocks, Australia.

Peter Busch: Okay. All you surfing fans out there now you know from a pro. All right, so you're a swimmer too. Have you always been swimming as well or is that a more recent thing for you?

Keenan Lineback: I started swimming at age four with like swim lessons and everything and I started competing somewhere in the age of six I think so I've been doing that quite a while.

Peter Busch: And you're more of a distance swimmer obviously. You just did get second place in the Mile Swim at La Jolla. You swim 400 IM in distance events. How do the surfing and the distance swimming - how does one help the other?

Keenan Lineback: Well surfing is not as strenuous as swimming but it definitely helps cross training and everything because it's kind of a different - it's just a different feel and also swimming definitely helps with the surfing because I can surf for a really long time and not get tired like some people that don't do anything else but surf too so it kind of helps each other.

Peter Busch: So you can stay out there longer, your legs can stay stronger for more sets.

Keenan Lineback: Right.

Peter Busch: Now I know this could be a stupid question but open water swimming - is there anything about understanding the waves and being in the ocean all the time that can give you an advantage in an open water race as opposed to maybe a pool race?

Keenan Lineback: I don't feel like it was that - like I had an advantage or anything. At the very beginning - like the start [ 3:34i so I could kind of see like when the sets were coming in, like when the bigger waves would come but that was just about it, everything else was the same I feel like.

Peter Busch: So you're swimming at San Diego - did you go out there for both probably, swimming and the surfing?

Keenan Lineback: Yes. More for the swimming because I'm swimming in college and everything but surfing was just kind of like an extra awesome thing that kind of works out.

Peter Busch: Yes, that does count as an extra awesome bonus. Well welcome to the west coast. It's a little bit different. We've got power outages that knock out the power for five million people. I'm sure you experienced last week.

Keenan Lineback: Yes, class was cancelled the next day. I was kind of happy about that.

Peter Busch: You know I also noticed you had a birthday recently, September 11th.

Keenan Lineback: Yes, September 11th, which was the day of the La Jolla Rough Water Swim.

Peter Busch: It's also of course the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Difficult having a birthday on that day or you don't really notice the difference?

Keenan Lineback: some people are like "Ooh, that stinks" but it makes people remember it and our school on that day - one of the girl's moms made us shirts that said "USD loves USA" and like they're red, white, and blue so it was really cool, I felt like we were doing it for a cause and that we really made it - like people will remember that day more.

Peter Busch: Very interesting. How old are you now?

Keenan Lineback: I just turned 19.

Peter Busch: Well I'm sure that 9th birthday was a little bit of a downer but like you said something people can remember and you make the best of it, right?

Keenan Lineback: Right.

Peter Busch: Well again welcome to San Diego. It's fun to have a different storyline, a swimmer-surfer. It's been a long time that I can remember since we had somebody like that in the sport. Good luck this year.

Keenan Lineback: Thank you.

Peter Busch: All right, that's Keenan Lineback joining us from the University of San Diego. That is it for today's show. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.